Immigration is not new

Win FEARNLEY has written to me on the subject of her maiden name. PICKAVER is a very rare name in Lincolnshire with just the one family in 1881. Win’s grandfather came from the village of Wymondham in Leicestershire and a check of the census shows that this village had links to several of the families. A rather nice touch was the finding of George Robert PICKOVER who was living in Derbyshire which showed the manner in which the locals pronounced the village name. His place of birth is listed as being Wyeham in Leicestershire. The PICKAVER family history includes the possibility that the name might be Huguenot in origin. This I feel is unlikely for the following reason. The main flood of Huguenot immigrants came at the middle of the 17th century when something like 50,000 arrived. These had to fit in with an English population that is estimated at six million people. At that time the population had already set out the surnames that we use today. The origin of the name PICKOVER according to the dictionary is as a nickname meaning to pick oats from the Middle English pikken. The name was in use in England in around the year 1255. Try ‘Googling’ the word Huguenot. For more information on the Huguenots there are some good links at the National Huguenot Society web page. The nearest surname to PICKAVER you can find on the web page is PICKENS and PICKON. FEARNLEY has a nice simple history. There has been little change over the several hundred years that it has been in use. Back in 1200 it was spelt simply FERNLEE and came from the ‘dweller in the fern covered clearing’ and the possible village that grew up there that took the name Farnley.
David WILKINS emailed me via ifor@familyroots.org and mentioned that he had two unusual names in the family tree. The first mentioned is that of BAZLINGTON. This changes easily to BASLINGTON and one would think that this is simply a village somewhere or other. Sadly this is not the case as there is no sign of a village by this name even though there are people with the BASLINGTON name all across the world. The national index for 1881 census gives just five families throughout England and Wales. Could it be from the same root as Basing and Basingstoke which are connected to the man called Basa who first lived there. Lastly there is the name GABBITAS and a similar one which I have found locally to the Caistor area. This Yorkshire name comes, I believe, from a font name. The pet form of the name Gabriel is GABB and the diminutive version of this is GABBOT or GABBUT. The local version is GORBUTT. One of the first mentions of this name is with John GABYTUS in Newark at the end of the 15th century. For everything you ever wanted to know about the GABBITAS family go to www.gabbitasgenealogy.com/ and take a look at the family tree.
Bits and Bobs
The Times - 9th September 1808 - General News: The mysterious disappearance of Mr John DEWHIRST, of Sothy, Lincolnshire, who left his family on Saturday the 17th of October last, (1807), and was supposed to have been murdered on his return to Horncastle Market, is at length accounted for. His friends have lately received a letter from him, wherein he states that he is in good health, in the Island of Jamaica, that he has got a place of £160 per year, and he hopes his wife will go to him. He adds, that he ´left his family to acquire property enough to support old age´. The letter was read to many persons on Saturday in Horncastle Market. Two men were in Louth prison last week, charged with the murder of Mr DEWHIRST.